From the Pastor’s Heart

I would like to share with you a true story, which comes from the book, ‘Expecting Adam,’ by Martha Beck. It is a story of birth, rebirth and everyday magic. It is not necessarily a religious book but I would certainly classify it as a spiritual book.

Martha and her husband John were on the track for academic success. They each had two Harvard degrees and were working toward another. This gives you a glimpse of the character of these two people. They had two young daughters and very clearly had their goals mapped out for their lives as they climbed the ladder of academic achievement and success. They were living out their idea of the American dream.

But suddenly there was a wrinkle in their goals. Martha discovered she was pregnant. The pregnancy was unexpected, unplanned and quite honestly, unwanted. This pregnancy did not fit into their vision of their future. They were too busy working on their academic careers and had no time for this unplanned interruption. Complicating things further Martha learned the child she was carrying had Down’s Syndrome.

John and Martha confided in a few advisors and friends at Harvard. These so called ‘educated people’ advised that they would surely do the ‘right thing’. One professor’s remarks I found to be very offensive: “Every woman has the obligation to screen her every pregnancy so that she does not bring a child into the world that would not be a hardship to society.” They warned Martha and John that if they decided to have this baby, they would lose all hope of achieving their carefully crafted goals.

Martha and John chose to have the baby. Little Adam now made them a family of five.

When Adam was three-years-old, well into his third year, he still was not talking. His inability to talk was terribly frustrating for him, and it just plain broke Martha’s heart. She worked with him day in and day out. Martha spent countless hours going through the exercises with Adam that the speech therapist had taught her, having no success whatsoever. Adam sometimes made random sounds that could be force-fit into words, but not with any degree of honesty. Martha had to face it. The kid couldn’t talk. Not at all!

One day after spending an entire afternoon working with Adam and trying to get him to say a word or two, Martha hit an all time low. Martha was tired, frustrated and depressed. She realized it was getting late and went to the kitchen to start supper. She discovered there was no food in the cupboards and would have to go to the grocery store. To make a bad day worse all the baby sitters were busy and her husband would not be home for a few hours. She would have to take all three kids shopping with her.

She did something none of us parents have ever done—she bribed them. She told them that if they were good at the store they could pick out a treat from the candy stands next to the checkout counter. She was too tired and discouraged to enforce discipline any other way.

When they had finished shopping Katie chose a roll of Life Savers and Lizzie a chocolate bar. Adam, who seemed to understand everything his mother said even though he couldn’t speak in return, went over to a bucket of roses and carefully looked them over and finally pulled out a very special rose and put it on the counter.

Martha looked at her son and shook her head and said, “Adam, this isn’t candy. The candy is over here.” She turned him around to the candy section and she put the rose back in the bucket. Little Adam went back to the bucket and picked out the very same rose and put it on the counter. Martha tried again, “Honey, this isn’t candy. The candy is over here.” He pointed at the rose. “This is what you want?” Martha asked. He simply nodded with a smile that went form ear to ear.

On the ride home Adam’s sisters unwrapped their treats and began enjoying their selections while Adam sat in his car seat holding his selection with both hands.

When they got home Martha had forgotten about Adam’s strange purchase and started putting the groceries away and began supper. After supper she bathed the kids and put them to bed. She fell exhausted into her bed and fell fast asleep.

The next morning, John had already left for the day. Martha could hear the girls in their room talking and laughing. She sighed with a sense of hopelessness because she knew that she would never here Adam join his sisters in conversation.

Just then she heard Adam’s small feet paddling down the hallway toward his parent’s bedroom. He appeared at the door with the rose, which he had put in a small crystal vase. She looked at him in surprise. She didn’t realize that he knew what vases were for, let alone how to get one down form the cupboard, fill it with water, and put a flower in it.

Adam walked over to his other’s bed and handed her the rose. As he held it out to her, he said in a clear and calm voice, “HERE!” Then he turned around, his little blue pajamas dragging a bit on the floor and padded out of the room.

For the first time in three years Martha’s hopelessness turned to hopefulness. For the first time she realized her son, flesh of her flesh, had a soul she could hardly comprehend. She sensed that he was sorry for the pain his mother felt as she tried to turn him into a ‘normal’ child, and that he loved her despite her many disabilities.

I share this story with you for a couple of reasons.
God loves us and fully accepts us regardless of our shortcomings and flaws. God sees in us what we are not able to see in ourselves.
Many of God’s children are not strangers to hopelessness. Just when we think we are at our wits end something happens to show us the way…. to bring light to our darkness. Hope is restored. God is the giver of that hope. When we least expect God hands us a rose and says, “Here!”

My prayer for you is that you may know God’s hope and in knowing that hope you may be agents of hope to a lost and hurting world.

Blessings,

Pastor Russel